GX7 EVF great or not so great

Trevor Carpenter wrote:

I was very unimpressed with the GX7s EVF and several others have commented similarly. Others have said how brilliant it is. If you've seen a GX7 perhaps you'd like to vote. It is hard to believe that views can be so different on a simple assessment.

Have you met the human race?

Kim Letkeman wrote:

Trevor Carpenter wrote:

I was very unimpressed with the GX7s EVF and several others have commented similarly. Others have said how brilliant it is. If you've seen a GX7 perhaps you'd like to vote. It is hard to believe that views can be so different on a simple assessment.

Have you met the human race?

Yes always surprises doesn't it. It's great that we don't all like the same things but you would think that a viewfinder is good or it isn't Can it really be that OVF users who have spent the last n years telling us that EVFs are rubbish like it and existing EVF users don't?

Schjeldal wrote:

Trevor Carpenter wrote:

babalu wrote:

Well , ladies and gents, I just now had a look through the OVF of my Nik D7000, and there is NO

I don't understand how I managed to get it so wrong. My OP post said exactly what I saw and a few others clearly had similar reservations. Can it be something with the way it is configured. I wear glasses but I don't that would have had such an impa

I have just returned my GX7 after two days of considerations. It was a very nice camera with almost everything as I wanted including a tiltable viewfinder. Unfortunately the EVF did not work very well together with my variofocal glasses. Even if my glasses are made of very flexible titanium and can be pressed close to the eye, it was impossible for me to see the picture in the EVF, when it displayed pictures in 16:9 or 3:2 aspect ratios. OK these ratios are not of big importance for me and when the EVF was displying pictures in aspect ratio 4:3 I could see the hole picture at a glance, and furthermore in a quality far ahead of the picture I am used to in the EVF of my G1. Except for one thing: the size. This is unfortunetaly a deal breaker for me. I understand that people with good vision or people coming from the smaller OVFs in APS DSLRs are exited about the EVF of the GX7. It was with mixed feelings I had to return the GX7. None of the M43 alternatives with bigger EVFs are ideal: The two topmodels from Olympus have much bigger EVFs but the one have a clumsy add-on EVF and the other one is too expensive. Then there is the G6 which is relatively cheap, and also feels cheap in the hand, but at least have an EVF in a size and an aspect ratio of 4:3 which is comparable with my current G1.

I have progressive (varifocal) glasses and am quite happy with the E-M5's EVF.  I assume I would find the E-M1's EVF an improvement, but no upgrade plans for now.

I tried the GX7 in a store here in the UK, and although the build quality, handling, operation were all top notch, the EVF is not as good as the NEX 6. I think Sony have developed a top notch EVF, same as they use in the clip on one for the NEX's without EVFs.

But I only had a few minutes with the GX7 and did not make any adjustments. Sony appeared to be higher res, larger field of view and more colour. But again, only a few mins with the GX7.

Will make a choice between the GX7, Canon 70D and any new NEX Sony may or may not announce later in the year. Winner will be whichever offers the best dynamic range, focus speed/accuracy and noise free images in lowish light with an f1.8 to f2 lens. And silent zoom during video recording. EVF wise, more concerned about focusing and exposure than colour, can always check colour with the LCD.

panos_m wrote:

Is it possible to move the displayed info outside the actual finder area (at the bottom for example), just like an OVF, even if this makes the finder area smaller? If not for the GX7 any other m4/3s camera/EVF combination that can do this? Thanks.

Yes it is possible both in the GX7 and in the G1. I would be surprised if it also is possible in all the Panasonic M43 models in between. You can choose this function separate for the EVF and for the LCD monitor.

Had a play with my friend's GX7 today and hers' my 2 cents worth.
I've owned GH2/G6 (still do) and have used Sony A57/A65, E-M5's EVF's.

EVF isn't as big as the G6 when in 4:3 or 3:2 mode. I mainly use 3:2 (I'm old school) which does make the use of the 16:9 ratio shaped EVF a bit better than 4:3 on the GX7. I don't wear glasses which is good and bad as the EVF eye cup is a lot smaller than GH2/G6 I had meaning I could't rest my eye (eye brow part) on it. If I try, the small EVF cup will poke my eye. I think I'm definitely going to buy the optional bigger eye cup for it as I really prefer to rest it against my eye brow.

The view of the EVF display was very clear. No issues when moving a little left or right off angle. The so-called rainbow effect was hardly noticeable for me. I know what it is as my GH2 had it but I really had to move it around to get a glimpse of it in the GX7. In real use, I doubt I'll care.

I felf the EVF wasn't as bright as I would like it to be. However, the colour was very good. Very saturated (can be toned down), nice and contrasty. It looks more like an OLED EVF than an LCD EVF in terms of contrast and richness of its colours. (probably due to the high PPI) I could tell that it had a higher resolution display than the G6's EVF. Very hard to make out the pixels. So it looks nice and smooth.

The information (font size) such as aperture etc are MUCH smaller than I'm used to. Maybe that's one of the things which makes it look like the EVF is much smaller? Not sure if I like it or not yet. I need more time with it to say.

Anyways, a very nice EVF although I prefer the size and the "look" of the G6 EVF a bit more. So it's great that GX7 has a EVF at least but I didn't feel it was an improvement over the one on my current G6.

I'm sure I'll forget about it after a good day of use though.

Trevor Carpenter wrote:

Kim Letkeman wrote:

Trevor Carpenter wrote:

I was very unimpressed with the GX7s EVF and several others have commented similarly. Others have said how brilliant it is. If you've seen a GX7 perhaps you'd like to vote. It is hard to believe that views can be so different on a simple assessment.

Have you met the human race?

Yes always surprises doesn't it. It's great that we don't all like the same things but you would think that a viewfinder is good or it isn't Can it really be that OVF users who have spent the last n years telling us that EVFs are rubbish like it and existing EVF users don't?

I like the GH2 EVF ... which tells you that anything an m4/3 manufacturer puts into a camera will satisfy me.

And it is not that I am an EVF fan ... the one on the HS25 is abysmal ... the one on the HS50 is only tolerable ...

nevada5 wrote:

Kim Letkeman wrote:

Trevor Carpenter wrote:

I was very unimpressed with the GX7s EVF and several others have commented similarly. Others have said how brilliant it is. If you've seen a GX7 perhaps you'd like to vote. It is hard to believe that views can be so different on a simple assessment.

Have you met the human race?

I think you're being rather pessimistic.

I was being neither pessimistic nor optimistic ... I was indicating that the human race has an extreme level of variance in beliefs.

Take the U.S. Congress, for example. An issue comes up and with a few trivial exceptions they generally are in agreement on nearly every ---- Oh, wait, I was thinking of something else. Never mind.

I see what you did there.

Yes, the congress is probably the best example of people disagreeing despite their personal beliefs and despite the teachings of people much more intelligent (but much less wealthy) than they ...

The sad fact is that the west and possibly the entire planet will suffer because of it ... the spectacular wealth gap, the potential services shut down in the US, the potential collapse of the world wide economy, the return of long vanquished diseases throughout the US ... there is little good that comes from institutionalizing ignorance ...

I also had a play with a GX7 in a UK Panasonic Store recently. I wear glasses, and currently use a GH2 (I have also previously owned the GX1 with LVF2 finder). I liked the colour and contrast of the GX7 EVF - much better than previous models. The viewfinder image is smaller than the GH2, but as a glasses wearer that's fine by me as it makes it easier to see the edges of the frame. I sometimes find the GH2 finder too big. However, I did have difficulty adjusting the dioptre to match my eyesight, and found that even when I set it as accurately I could, there was still noticeable astigmatism (a sort of side-to-side colour fringing, if that makes sense!) in the viewfinder image (especially noticeable in the information displays). I have a similar problem with my GH2, and unfortunately I wasn't able to compare side by side to see if the GX7 was better or worse. The LVF2 (for the GX1), on the other hand, posed no such problems, and I always found the image beautifully clear - so it is possible to find a Panasonic EVF with excellent viewfinder optics! I do have astigmatism in my dominant eye, but it is properly corrected in my glasses so shouldn't pose a problem using a viewfinder (and it was never a problem with the LVF2). I put it down to inferior viewfinder optics in the Panasonic cameras.

However, the GX7 EVF is a lot clearer than the GH3 finder which I also tested out last year - I found the blurring/smearing awful on the GH3.

I have also recently played with an OM-D EM-5 and I found the viewfinder image to be essentially the same size as the GX7 (i.e. smaller than the GH2). I didn't have the same problems with the dioptre adjustment that I had with the GX7 - the image seemed pretty clear once I had adjusted it correctly.

Don't get me wrong - the GX7 viewfinder is good, but just not maybe as good as it could be. The LVF2 is the clearest EVF I have used so far (but not as detailed or colourful as the GX7). I'm fussy about viewfinders, and I think this might just put me off buying the GX7.